Cancer has proven to be a very difficult disease to treat, as the abnormal growth of cells within different regions of a human body can be difficult to pinpoint in terms of severity and growth pattern and rate. In particular, lung cancer has proven to be particularly puzzling in terms of effective treatment due to the problems inherent in diagnosing the type and degree of abnormal growth present. In the past, drastic measures, including partial or even total lung removal has been a typical treatment in order to prevent further migration and growth of carcinomas and other dangerous cells throughout a patient's thoracic region. Additionally, through introduction into the lymphatic system, such cancerous cells can spread throughout the human body at an alarming rate. The earlier a proper diagnosis can be made as to the type and extent of spread of such dangerous cells, particularly within the lungs and associated draining lymph nodes, certainly the better.
One manner of at least attempting to diagnose the severity of cancer growth has been the removal of lymph nodes within the mediastinal region in order to assess the spread throughout the local lymphatic region of the patient. Unfortunately, however, there has been a significant disconnect between the surgeon and the pathologist, most pronounced in the lack of proper and specific lymph node removal by the surgeon in terms of actual locations from within the subject patient's mediastinal region and the thorough, correct, and complete examination of such surgically removed specific lymph nodes prior to removal by the pathologist. In the past, a surgeon would simply remove a cluster of lymph nodes together without any consideration as to the specific type in terms of location within the patient's lungs and mediastinum. Such a cluster would not, then, take account nor supply any further information for the pathologist in terms of actual mediastinal disposition within the subject patient. Furthermore, the lobes of lymph nodes provided the pathologist would be picked apart by the pathologist, generally, in order to analyze each individual removed lymph node for cancer indications. Hence, the pathologist could easily misplace such small (less than 3 cm long and wide, for instance) lymph nodes during and after analysis, and, without knowing the actual location of each removed lymph node, the pathologist would be limited in terms of the ability to pinpoint the specific growth rate and spread throughout the patient's mediastinal region. To date, although the different types of lymph nodes present within a typical patient's mediastinal area are well known and well defined, there has been no development or consideration given to the proper individual removal and subsequently analysis thereof of each and every mediastinal lymph node type. Without such a formal understanding and consideration of the actual location (and thus distances between subject lymph nodes), the pathologist lacks an important tool in providing the most comprehensive diagnosis the oncologist may then rely upon for most effective treatment to be provided the patient after surgery.
Compounding such a lack of consideration of such an important lymph node location issue is the lack of any tool that provides the surgeon a proper and reliable means to actually permit separation of individual mediastinal lymph nodes from a patient and properly store the same for the benefit of the pathologist to properly analyze each different type of lymph node removed for such a purpose. Thus, the present invention overcomes these three distinct issues: 1) to improve surgeon performance of lymphatic dissection/surgery; and 2) to improve communication between a surgeon and a pathologist to properly ascribe the extent of cancerous growth and/or migration from the patient's lungs through the mediastinum; and 3) to improve pathologist examination overall through a proper label and consideration of each removed lymph node specimen in relation to its initial proximity to a patient's lungs.